Cake Equity
Cake Equity is a global equity management platform that simplifies how you issue, manage, and track options and shares for your employees and investors across multiple jurisdictions.
Carta
Carta is a comprehensive equity management platform that helps you manage cap tables, valuations, and equity plans while ensuring compliance for your company, investors, and employees.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Cake Equity | Carta |
|---|---|---|
| Website | cakeequity.com | carta.com |
| Pricing Model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting Price | Free | Free |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✘ No free trial |
| Free Plan | ✓ Has free plan | ✓ Has free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2018 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Gold Coast, Australia | San Francisco, USA |
Overview
Cake Equity
Cake Equity simplifies the complex world of cap tables and employee share plans. You can move away from messy spreadsheets and manage your entire equity lifecycle—from founding to exit—in one centralized, cloud-based platform. It automates the heavy lifting of legal compliance and document signing, allowing you to issue options or shares to your team in minutes rather than weeks.
The platform is specifically designed for startups and scale-ups looking to expand globally. You can manage equity across different countries with built-in rules for various jurisdictions, ensuring your global team stays motivated and compliant. Whether you are raising your first round or managing hundreds of employee stakeholders, you get a clear, real-time view of your ownership structure.
Carta
Carta simplifies how you manage equity, from your first hire to your eventual exit. Instead of messy spreadsheets, you get a centralized platform to track your cap table, issue electronic securities, and stay compliant with tax regulations like 409A valuations. You can automate the entire equity lifecycle, ensuring that your legal, finance, and HR teams stay perfectly aligned as your company grows.
The platform serves everyone from early-stage startups to late-stage private and public companies. You can provide your employees with a clear view of their ownership and vesting schedules through a dedicated portal, while giving your investors real-time access to their holdings. It eliminates the manual overhead of equity administration so you can focus on building your business.
Overview
Cake Equity Features
- Automated Cap Table Maintain a single source of truth for your ownership structure that updates automatically whenever you issue new shares.
- Employee Share Plans Set up and manage ESOPs or options plans easily to attract and retain top talent with automated vesting tracking.
- Global Compliance Issue equity to team members in over 100 countries using localized offer letters and legal frameworks built into the platform.
- Scenario Modeling Model your next funding round or exit to see exactly how dilution will affect you and your existing shareholders.
- Digital Document Signing Send, sign, and store all your equity-related legal documents securely within the platform to speed up your workflows.
- Investor Portals Give your investors their own dashboard to track their holdings, view updates, and access important tax or legal documents.
Carta Features
- Automated Cap Table. Track your company's ownership in real-time with a digital cap table that updates automatically whenever you issue new shares.
- 409A Valuations. Get audit-ready valuations from experts quickly so you can stay compliant with IRS regulations when granting employee stock options.
- Electronic Securities. Issue and sign stock options, warrants, and RSUs electronically to eliminate paper trails and speed up the board approval process.
- Employee Equity Portal. Give your team a dedicated dashboard where they can track their vesting progress and understand the potential value of their holdings.
- Scenario Modeling. Run what-if analyses to see how future funding rounds or exit events will impact your ownership and dilution levels.
- Compliance Tracking. Stay on top of Rule 701 limits and Form 3921 filings with automated alerts and reporting built directly into your workflow.
Pricing Comparison
Cake Equity Pricing
- Up to 5 stakeholders
- Basic cap table management
- Standard document storage
- Basic reporting tools
- Community support access
- Everything in Free, plus:
- Up to 20 stakeholders
- Employee Option Plans (ESOP)
- Digital signing integration
- Standard vesting schedules
- Email support
Carta Pricing
- Up to 25 stakeholders
- Digital cap table management
- Electronic security issuance
- Onboarding support
- Standard equity reporting
- Everything in Launch, plus:
- Unlimited stakeholders
- Audit-ready 409A valuations
- Scenario modeling tools
- Equity plan administration
- Advanced compliance reporting
Pros & Cons
Cake Equity
Pros
- Extremely intuitive interface compared to traditional legal software
- Streamlines global hiring with localized equity templates
- Excellent customer support during the initial onboarding process
- Automated vesting tracking saves hours of manual calculation
- Simplifies investor reporting with professional, clear dashboards
Cons
- Pricing can feel steep for very early-stage startups
- Advanced customization of legal documents can be limited
- Integration options with accounting software are still growing
Carta
Pros
- Eliminates manual spreadsheet errors in cap tables
- Streamlines the 409A valuation process significantly
- Provides excellent visibility for employee shareholders
- Simplifies communication between companies and investors
Cons
- Pricing increases sharply as stakeholder count grows
- Customer support response times can be inconsistent
- Initial data migration requires significant manual effort